The present invention relates to a belt weatherstrip and a glass run weatherstrip for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a belt weatherstrip or the like which seals the portion of a vehicle between the sliding glass window and the show surface of a vehicle door, for instance.
Belt weatherstrips of the past have generally been utilized to weather-strip sheet metal flange areas of a vehicle, such as found in a vehicle door, for instance, which has a spot welded end flange connecting the outer show surface portion with the inner frame portion of the door. Such weatherstrips commonly include a sealing lip for sealing and stripping water off the glass window and an overhanging elastomeric strip portion which engages the outer show surface of the car door in order to prevent water from entering the flange area.
It is desired in such constructions to provide a strip show surface of the weatherstrip which may include either a colored elastomer strip or chrome strip or the like which aesthetically matches the finishing contours of the vehicle surface, in order to produce a matched fit. In many vehicle designs a transition edge is formed near the flange which becomes a transition point from the weatherstrip show surface to the vehicle door show surface. Such edges generally are not parallel to the flange portion but have certain contours or may taper depending on the design of the vehicle body and doors. Thus, in the past it was necessary to provide separate constructions which would exactly match the particular application depending on the width of the necessary overlying surface.
It is desired that such a belt weatherstrip will blend in with the design of the vehicle body and form a generally continuous surface at the transition edge into the vehicle door or the like. This was accomplished, in past constructions, by manufacturing a belt weatherstrip in accordance with the particular tolerances of the particular application. For instance, in prior constructions a belt weatherstrip core and show surface were manufactured to a particular specification. After the manufacture of this portion a separately manufactured glass sealing lip member was attached by staples or the like to the first portion and the belt weatherstrip was then assembled onto the vehicle end flange.
Thus, these prior belt weatherstrips were relatively expensive to manufacture since the tooling and manufacturing equipment used must be changed for each particular vehicle model design. Additionally, such prior belt weatherstrip constructions required a two-step process for attaching the sealing lip portion to the belt weatherstrip core portion thus, adding to the cost of labor involved in assembling the belt weatherstrip.
Therefore, it has been a goal in the art to provide a one-piece belt weatherstrip which would be suitable in such applications, thereby saving the costs of separate operations during manufacture thereof. It has also been a goal in the art to provide a belt weatherstrip which can be adapted to varying contours or transition tapers of the show surface of a vehicle without requiring separate tooling or manufacture thereof. Such a construction would provide for reduced costs in tooling and manufacture of the part resulting in more efficient utilization of resources and costs savings in both manufacture and sales of the part.
It has been an additional problem in the art that when providing a glass run weatherstrip for a window aperture of a vehicle it is sometimes necessary to traverse a corner of the window aperture. In the past this was accomplished by angular bending of a weatherstrip. It was sometimes necessary to thereafter restrike the glass run weatherstrip in order to provide proper clearance for the vehicle window at the bend in the weatherstrip.
Thus, it has been a goal in the art to provide a glass run weatherstrip which can be formed with a suitable angular bend to traverse a corner of a vehicle window aperture without the necessity of restriking the glass run weatherstrip.
Additionally, in some corner bend applications, where glass clearance is not particularly a problem, it has been desirable to provide a constant cross-section for a glass run strip about the corner. This has been attempted in the prior art by stretching of the metal in its longitudinal direction at the bend. This is problematic due to the fact that the weatherstrips formed sometimes have a reduced size or distortion in its cross-section at the corner bend. Also, because of this reformation the metal at the corner bend may be weakened. Thus, it has been a goal to provide a glass run construction which can be easily formed to provide a constant cross-section at a corner bend.